


Things We Should Have Said

by MrsSaxon



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Admission of love, Cute, Fluff, Hannigram - Freeform, I just want things to be happy, Just something nice in between murdering, M/M, Murder Husbands, Undressing, also very silly, bordering on wish fulfilment, brief nudity, fluffy fluffy fluff fluff, missing hour in The Wrath of the Lamb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 08:30:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4822283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsSaxon/pseuds/MrsSaxon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After arriving at Hannibal's safe house Hannibal is in a brilliant mood, Will is less so. Fortunately, Hannibal has some strategies for pulling Will out of his shell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things We Should Have Said

After a brief survey of the surrounding area of the safe house, they entered, exhausted but wary.

Hannibal made a determined path down the hall, “I’m going for a shower, Will. Join me?” He turned his head to smirk and catch Will’s exasperated grimace.

Fulfilling expectations, Will closed his eyes and gave a brief sigh before replying, “You go on ahead, I’ll take the next one.”

Hannibal pouted, “He might be here at any time, are you sure?”

Will shook his head, “He kills by the stages of the moon; he’ll wait for nightfall to attack.”

Hannibal glanced out the window, “So he does. But evening’s falling fast. You’re missing a great opportunity, Will, and you might not get another chance.” He cocked his head at Will, still lingering in the doorway of the bathroom.

Will’s lips quirked, “Tell you what, we live through this and I will gladly step into any bathroom with you.”

Hannibal brightened, smiling, “Then I will make it my business to live through this,” before stepping into the bathroom and closing the door.

Will waited until he could hear the water running before moving closer, “Do you think we can really kill the dragon?”

“Yes,” came Hannibal’s prompt reply over the spray of hot water.

“You don’t doubt it even a little?” Will wondered, leaning against the wall by the door.

“Not at all.”

Will hesitated, “Why?”

It was a few moments before Hannibal replied, “Because we enabled his becoming. We are the monsters that came before; that makes us stronger.”

“Am I a monster now?” Will snorted softly, but his question wasn’t quite derisive enough to be convincing.

“You have killed a man and it felt good to you,” Hannibal explained patiently, “You helped me escape, twice. And some would argue that your ability to understand monsters makes you a monster just for that.”

“You never felt that way.”

“But I am a monster, aren’t I Will?” The water shut off, adding expectation to the already pregnant pause.

Will didn’t answer.

“And if I am a monster,” Hannibal continued, taking Will’s silence in stride, “then my opinion of whether or not you are one is skewed, no? But to take a different tact, your empathy for monsters went beyond catching them. You also failed to kill me, twice.”

Will cracked a wry grin, “I can’t take all the credit for that, you were quite set on living.”

He could feel Hannibal smiling behind the door, “Yes, I’m afraid I insist on it.”

After another moment, the door opened and Hannibal stepped out completely unclothed in a cloud of steam. His hair was wet, but neatly combed, his face smooth and newly shaven. Will met his eyes before Hannibal moved on down the hall towards the bedroom to get dressed. Will’s eyes followed him, looking down his lean body, seeing how each muscle moved, remembering he was much more powerful than he looked.

Hannibal was always unembarrassed, at all times. If he didn’t want Will to look, he would have put something on. Will reminded himself of this.

“There’s also one other thing to add to the monster balance,” Hannibal spoke up as he fished a pair of socks from his drawers.

Will cleared his throat before responding, “What’s that?”

“That you’re completely in love with me.” Hannibal didn’t look at him as he said it.

Will felt his lips part to respond, but his mouth ran dry. For a moment, the world had stopped.

Hannibal calmly pulled on a black thong, his face neutral and unconcerned. “Aren’t you?” he said, at last turning towards Will, looking at him curiously.

Will felt like he had been running from this moment for a very long time. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t move. He could just see Hannibal, moving closer to him; his face long-since etched in memory looked as open as it ever had.

They started speaking at the same time “Don’t feel that you have to-” “What makes you think that I-”

Hannibal stiffened, inhaling deeply, and adjusting his gaze, “You can feel free to deny it, if you like. If that’s more comfortable for you than admitting the truth.”

“I don’t… the truth is um…” Will swallowed, desperate for words that wouldn’t come, “a difficult thing to grasp.” He wouldn’t look at Hannibal now.

“So it is,” Hannibal revealed no hint of disappointment, no anger or resentment. His tone was almost… understanding.

“The shower’s all yours,” Hannibal reminded him, nodding to the open door in front of Will’s face.

“Right, yeah,” Will shook himself and stepped inside, pulling off his shoes.

Hannibal didn’t move from his spot, “May I watch you undress, Will?”

Will’s eyes widened, but he continued unrolling his socks, “Do I have much choice in the matter?” he said evenly.

“Certainly,” Hannibal nodded, leaning against the wall opposite the bathroom, arms folded across his chest, “If you want your privacy I will respect your wishes. I’m not _that_ sort of monster.” He could never resist a double entendre.

Will rolled his eyes and said nothing. But neither did he close the door. He stripped down, shirt next, then belt and pants, underwear. Quietly he stepped into the shower, very conscious of not looking once in Hannibal’s direction. As he turned on the water, he said, “You could find me something to wear in the meantime.” If Hannibal responded, Will couldn’t hear it.

Will took much longer in the shower than was strictly necessary to clean himself. He hoped the water could somehow wash away the tension between them, that when he stepped out he wouldn’t feel the overwhelming need to explain himself. But he knew he’d have to so he was just buying time to gather his courage.

After many minutes of contemplating how to broach this, Will opened the door, a fluffy towel wrapped around his waist. Hannibal was still waiting on the other side. He didn’t appear to have moved, though his skin was now dry and there was a wet spot on the carpet under his feet.

Will swallowed hard, “If I was in love with you… would that make me a monster or prevent me from becoming one?”

“You know Will,” Hannibal began, looking hard at him, “There are no monsters except inside your own head. If you want to consider me, you, Francis Dolarhyde monsters, then so be it. But they only exist by your own definitions. And I can’t keep feeding your lies to yourself.” He turned away and walked back to the bedroom to get dressed.

“You said I didn’t have to admit anything,” Will followed him to the doorway.

“I said you didn’t have to admit that you love me, yes,” Hannibal replied, losing patience, “I did not say you could use me as an excuse not to be truthful with yourself and me. If your love depends on a definition then you are not capable of love.”

Will wished he couldn’t see his face, the anger, the despair.

He moved forward, “Hannibal, I-”

Hannibal pressed his knuckles into the bed, “Will, I will have to ask you to-”

Will cupped his face and turned Hannibal towards him, pressing their lips together in a seal, a ring, a closed loop with no beginning or end. Will could feel Hannibal relax as he let the frustration go, the softest of sighs floating across his face.

“I do, I do love you,” Will whispered, still scared to hear the words out loud.

Hannibal’s eyes were still closed, but he smiled, “I know.”

Will shivered and swallowed, “How did you know? When did you know?”

He opened his eyes again to look at Will, “When did _you_ know?”

Will thought back, “When you asked me if it had been good to see you. I didn’t know how to respond. It was impossible to put what I felt into words.” Will looked back at him, as if asking for confirmation.

“Can you keep a secret?” Hannibal leaned in until their foreheads touched, “That was when I knew too.” He drew back, smiling fondly.

Will looked surprised, “Really? But I thought you…”

“Well, I admit I had several encouraging clues. But I wasn’t certain until just then. And I suppose I was cheating slightly,” Hannibal laid a finger to the side of his nose, “but I can’t very well deny my gifts.”

“So you could…?”

“The neurological process we call love has a distinct flavor, yes. The shifts in your hormones, combined with adrenaline, made it very palpable. At least, to someone who knows what they’re sniffing for,” Hannibal smirked, laying a hand against the back of Will’s head, stroking his drying curls.

“Oh. That makes sense I guess. But you were waiting for it,” Will looked at him carefully, “I think you’ve been waiting for it for a long time.”

Hannibal leaned back, reserved, “Fours years, six months and a few hours I would guess.”

“That’s… much longer than I expected,” Will nodded.

“It would be longer than that except I, too, struggled with naming what I felt for you,” Hannibal added reasonably.

Will looked up, “You were in love with me from the very beginning? Then why did you put me through-”

Hannibal gently covered his mouth with a hand, “Think carefully about what you were about to say, Will. And no, not from the very beginning. I had to get inside your head first. Then I found that I couldn’t find my way out again.” Content with his assessment, he removed his hand. “But I have a question for you, Will. After fighting so hard to be rid of me and denying all our similarities, when did you start to feel that letting go of me may not be what you wanted?”

Will swallowed and took a deep breath, “I spent a long time hating you.”

“Yes, I know,” Hannibal interjected gently.

Will’s lips quirked, “Glad you consider me justified. But then I discovered that, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t go back to who I was before. So then I tried to understand you, why you did this to me, to everyone. What drove you. And I did,” Will met his eyes, “I could see you.”

Hannibal waited expectantly, head tilted just slightly. After three years of waiting in isolation, his eyes held a sadness they had never expressed before. Will had reconciled himself to the fact that Hannibal had changed him. But now he saw that he had equally changed Hannibal.

Will licked his lips, “I think that was when I began to love you.”

“Can’t beat them so join them, is that what I hear?” Hannibal’s lips stretched into an unwanted smile.

Will shook his head softly, “No, no, it… it’s more complicated than that. You got inside me. And I got inside you. And now there’s just…” Will stopped talking because there wasn’t a way to say what he meant.

Hannibal watched him, waiting to see if he’d continue. Gently, Hannibal slid his hands up to cup Will’s face when it was clear he had nothing more to say. Will had the anxious sense that Hannibal was etching this moment in his memory, that this was a breath he would hold for as long as he could.

Hannibal pressed a kiss to Will’s forehead, then turned around and pulled a folded dress shirt and pants from his drawers, “These should fit.” He handed the bundle to Will, “Come, get dressed. Our destiny will be here soon.” He said it so lightly Will could almost believe this was just another dinner party. Only this time they would be throwing it together.

“Hannibal…” Will turned back at the door as he left to get dressed and saw Hannibal watching him go. Not with sadness any longer, but the way he used to look at him many years ago when it was easy to call each other friend. When they knew nothing else about each other. Will smiled, “Thank you.”

Hannibal inclined his head, “Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t asked me how I have clothing in your size.”


End file.
